Pips Member Edward Patten Dies

Gladys Knight & the Pips member Edward Patten died early this morning (Feb. 25) at a suburban Detroit hospital, according to his cousin William Guest, another member of the group. He was 65.

Gladys Knight & the Pips member Edward Patten died early this morning (Feb. 25) at a suburban Detroit hospital, according to his cousin William Guest, another member of the group. He was 65.

Patten, an Atlanta native who lived in Detroit, died at a hospital in Michigan from a stroke he suffered a few days before.

Gladys Knight & the Pips — comprised of Knight; her brother, Merald “Bubba” Knight; and their cousins Guest and Patten — recorded for Motown from 1966-1973 and for Buddah Records from 1973-77. They later recorded for CBS until breaking up in 1989. The group was inducted to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996.

Patten, known for his high tenor voice, joined the group in 1959, Guest said. Patten’s father was a bandleader and he, along with the rest of the family, grew up around music.

Patten was also one of the founders of Crew Records, based in Detroit and Atlanta, and sang backup for the label’s recording artists.

The “Clown Prince of Basketball” played with the Harlem Globetrotters for 24 seasons. Here’s a look at some of his most memorable moments on the court. (Harlem Globetrotters International)

When Meadow George Lemon walked into the Ritz Theater in Wilmington, N.C., at age 11, he didn’t have much going for him. He was born a second-class citizen in the Jim Crow South. His folks had split up, leaving his aunt and uncle to raise him — a skinny boy with a funny name “not at the top of anyone’s priority list,” as he later wrote. And, for a kid who looked forward to splurging 25 cents on westerns and adventure flicks, there was no clear way out.

Then, in the early 1940s, Lemon saw the newsreel that changed his life.

“The newsreel on this particular Saturday was about a new kind of team — a basketball team known as the Harlem Globetrotters,” he later wrote. “The players in the newsreel were unlike any I had ever seen. … They laughed, danced, and did ball tricks as they stood in a ‘Magic Circle’ and passed the ball to a jazzy tune called ‘Sweet Georgia Brown.’ How they could play!” He added: “There was one other thing that was different about them, though. They were all black men. The same color as me.”